If you didn’t already know, Sephora has opened its online store regionally on 1 Feb 2016. This is, I believe in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong for now. The inclusion of Hong Kong surprised me, as Sephora stores had opened, and closed down there many years ago. The Sephora Australia online store launched late last year, to a bit of brou-ha-ha.
You see, what happened was that some time last year, LVMH (parent company of Sephora) bought over online shopping store, Luxola. Most of you would be familiar with Luxola, I’m sure. They are an online store based in Singapore, but which quickly spread its wings regionally and is quite popular. Luxola offered many brands that were hard to find within the region, with very attractive prices and generous discounts. I’d never purchased from them (personal vendetta) but I know many had, and were loyal to the store, and its discounts.
So, when I first learned of LVMH’s acquisition of Luxola, I had an inkling of what was to come. I therefore, wasn’t too surprised when Sephora announced that they were going to have online stores locally. It did make me wonder if, knowing what I know, whether I’d shop at Sephora online. After all, I already do a lot of online shopping.
Will you?
The Luxola-Sephora hybrid store conundrum
While there was a lot of speculation about how the Luxola-Sephora transition would happen, it all became quite clear on 1 February, when the Sephora online stores went live. There was an email sent out to Luxola customers informing them of the switch over, and offering some form of discounts and conversion of points (I’m a little hazy on details, so if you have shopped on the site before, you will have gotten your email and be clearer about things)
However, when I checked out the Sephora online store out of curiousity, I was rather surprised to see that it was pretty much a rebranded Luxola site.
There were some new brands included, which are carried by Sephora locally e.g. Nudestix, Tarte and Marc Jacobs Beauty, but in the main, the brands carried by Luxola were still present. This should technically please most people, except it didn’t.
Many brands sold at Sephora stores aren’t available online e.g. NYX, Clinique, Estee Lauder, Dior, Caudalie, Too Faced, Shiseido, Guerlain etc. The online store is essentially a Luxola store with Sephora branding. Brands sold on Luxola aren’t available in Sephora stores. It was a bit of a strange mash-up, if I’m to be honest. I can buy Alpha-H on the Sephora online store, but I can’t buy it in the physical store. I can shop Guerlain and the magical Meteorites in store, but not online. It boggles my mind and begs the question why the lack of standardization of brands available.
Perhaps it’ll iron itself out, perhaps it won’t, but I know it didn’t sit well with those who were hoping for a proper online store with a proper representation of products sold at Sephora stores.
Stop! Price hike!
Also, with the change of ownership and rebanding came a price – literally. Prices of items literally shot up and through the roof! I had readers complain on my Instagram post, about prices of items they regularly buy on Luxola suddenly becoming much more expensive than they used to be. Zoeva brushes in particular, were suddenly very pricey in comparison to what they were before.
I also had people on Facebook tell me that they had such bad service with Luxola’s delivery service that they would rather just buy from the Sephora store now, since they’re one, rather than from the online store. Also, Luxola had an infamous problem with products being out of stock all the time, and it appears to still be the case.
Sephora online Shipping logistics don’t make sense
The online Sephora stores in this region will all ship from Singapore – which defies logic when there are stores in each of the countries (except Hong Kong). In fact, this was what irked Australian shoppers. Why were their Sephora goodies shipped all the way from Singapore to Australia, when there was a store in Sydney?! Similarly with us here in Malaysia – why ship from Singapore, when there are at least 8 Sephora stores in Malaysia at last count! While I understand how logistics and warehousing work, it still didn’t make sense to me. At least for Australia.
So logistically, it will take a few days (Sephora says 2-10 working days) for an item bought on the local Sephora website to reach your doorstep, as opposed to instant gratification buying the same item in store. Prices are the same after all. Not only that, there isn’t even next day delivery offered, which I might expect, if I did not know that the products will be shipped from Singapore. Malaysia isn’t very large – it is actually possible to send things overnight within the country – I’ve done it with the most basic of service, Poslaju.
So, with no extra benefits shopping at the Sephora store online as opposed to shopping in store, except for brands available only online (which brings me to my first point) I suppose the primary reason anyone would use the online store, would be if there was no Sephora store in your town. That is, if you didn’t mind that the online store was not really representative of what you could get at an actual Sephora store.
So that’s where I am at this time. I love shopping online, and I do so often. But because I had bad blood with the previous owners, I’m not likely to take my custom to this new Luxola-Sephora hybrid online store. That’s my personal beef. Does it make me a little biased? Yeah, I’m sure it does but hey, what does Sephora care? My business is but a drop in the figurative ocean!
Further, if it’s true that the prices were adjusted significantly to match in store prices or raise the prices (which I expected, as Luxola was very competitively priced before) then that would be another reason I wouldn’t shop there – ease of access to Sephora stores and alternatives. There are so many Sephora stores in town, you’re never too far away from one if you REALLY need something. And you don’t have to wait days or weeks for your purchase to arrive. As for other brands, I could just get them online elsewhere.
On the other hand, I can see how this might be exciting to those who do not have access to a physical store, or if you are in Hong Kong or other parts of Australia, where there is no store anyway. Something is better than nothing!
Where are you on this? Are you likely to be shopping at the new Sephora online stores or are you smarting over the switch?
I’d probably be blacklisted by Sephora over this, but heck. It’s not like they were terribly friendly with me to start! LOL! So, while I will still pop by the physical Sephora stores, I’ll be giving the online store a wide berth and take my online custom elsewhere. If I’m going to wait for days or weeks for a purchase to arrive, I might as well buy something that comes from further away! 😛 What about you?
Paris B
Farah says
I was a bit taken aback when they rebranded Luxola because it simply seems unprofessional to me? Or rather quite lazy? The shipping charges and minimum spending amount for free shipping is just ridiculous. I ordered on the 1st of February just out of curiosity on how the products will be delivered etc. I was very disappointed as it was poorly packaged, it came in a flimsy Sephora parcel foil thingy (everything came in perfect condition and bubble wrapped, I must say) but this is not Beautylish or Net a Porter standards which I have been Spoilt rotten with. The nice boxes and ribbons and you know. All that jazz. For such a big brand, I wasn’t impressed at all with Sephora and I’d rather spend my money at said online stores, Beautylish and Net a Porter. The products carried by Luxola is always out of stock too, and it always irks me. Bleh. Not my cup of tea. I’d rather shop at KEN’S.
Paris B says
I suppose Sephora wanted a quick and easy store template and Luxola was already there! LOL I wasn’t familiar with Luxola’s shipping charges and minimum spend so I couldn’t comment on that, but I did notice the rise in prices and reduction in discounts. I was wondering how that would work, since Sephora prices are higher than Luxola’s to start, but their raising of prices across the board seems to have addressed that! So sorry to hear the packaging wasn’t up to mark but I hear ya on shopping at Net-a-Porter. They’ve totally spoilt me in terms of packaging! I don’t usually buy cosmetics there, but their other products always come in those beautiful boxes (I can never opt for the regular brown boxes 😛 )
Yvonne says
Hi Paris!
I’m a Singaporean, and both a Sephora and Luxola customer. Even I am irritated with the services (fixing a time and delivery calling to come at another time) and changes (instock then out of stock), and most of all the price hike, so I can definitely identify with all the flame.
I got to a point where I am not sure what happened, and how they are meshing the Sephora perks with Luxola points. (The email from CEO mentioned a NEW loyalty program ‘Beauty Pass’ for Luxola, where the points will be transferred over, but nothing about meshing the online site with the store stuff. Then why do a rebrand?! Definitely not well thought-through…)
At the moment, even I prefer to shop from other sites like Net-a-Porter for things I cannot get ahold of, or go to the specific counters for Estee Lauder etc. rather than Sephora stores, or Sephora online.
It is totally disappointing, and really, they DO need to get their act together.
Paris B says
Hi Yvonne, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this! Actually, with so many Sephora stores so easily accessible in Singapore, it always puzzles me about the need for there to be an online store LOL But perhaps more for the online brands than anything else eh? I don’t know how well they’ve gotten their act together by now. I know they’re going on a big marketing blitz using social media and influencers though! LOL
Simu says
I’ve got a love-hate relationship with both Sephora and Luxola.
Sephora being that it’s super convenient to find most items together under one store, and from different brands at that. However I can honestly say that they have the suckiest customer service. Sales assistants are usually clueless about most products and generally extremely unhelpful.
Also I would much rather buy products from their own brand department stores(and form relationships with said sales assistants) as opposed to buying them in Sephora.
Luxola on the other hand, I was in love with mostly because of the countless discounts and the various brands that was a struggle to find, even with the existence of Sephora in Malaysia. As mentioned in your post however, it was incredibly irritating when no stock of any popular product returned.
In a nutshell, I would say that I’m on the fence about this. I’m glad that we finally have an online Sephora website where we would purchase things from without having to step outside our house, but on the other hand, it’s agitating to deal with price hikes along with the addition of GST and the already added increase of makeup and skincare products thanks to the decrease in value of the Malaysian currency.
Paris B says
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this Simu 🙂 I personally don’t shop a lot from Sephora either unless they happen to be exclusive to Sephora or there are discounts going on. Otherwise, there are always options out there! The price hikes are definitely hurting our wallets. I hear we can expect a new wave of price increases soon too due to the weakening RM. Bad news all around! 🙁
Tine says
A blogger pal of mine had a terrible experience shopping on the Sephora Australia site. She documented it on Twitter but in a nutshell, she ordered some items and one of them was sent wrongly. There were plenty of to-and-fros with Sephora; they requested her to send the eyeliner back but insisted she used a courier that she had to go to instead of arranging for a courier to pick it up from her. And when they resent her order, it was the wrong one again, and she had to do this all over again. A lot of time and money wasted just because they wanted back the $18 eyeliner. Seriously, if it was an Australian store, they most likely would have said “you know what, keep it, and we’ll just send you the item you asked for”. It’s a lot more money paying for couriers anyway.
I won’t be buying from the Sephora site because we finally have a Sephora here in Melbourne. Having said that, I’d much rather buy from Mecca as their service is so much better. A number of the girls at Sephora have the “MAC attitude”. Plus I’m glad we also have Adorebeauty, whose service is absolutely top notch.
Paris B says
Ugh! See the problem with having an online store that’s disconnected from the physical store? Worse still, in totally different countries! She should have written about it, just to a) get it off her chest and b) tell them just how far wrong Sephora is. I honestly don’t get the whole thing at all and if you have the options, might as well just shop at Mecca! It’s not like Sephora is selling things any cheaper 😉
Annie says
Oh this is weird. I just bought the sephora universal lip liner at the website for rm29. I went to the store and it was priced rm49. Quite the opposite of the situation. However the sephora eye makeup remover is the same price as the store. Also bought the sephora lash amplifier for rm14, not sure about the store price though… here’s hoping my items arrive safely
Paris B says
Now that’s a happy problem Annie 😉 I would have expected the items online to actually be priced the same as that in store, but who knows what they’re thinking eh? 😉 Hope you’ve gotten them by now!
Myly says
Do you know if this web ships to Shangai? I can’t find any info about it. I want to buy some BECCA products. Thanks
Cindy low says
Hi Paris B
Thanks for the info and I only got to know the fb page is outsourced and not handle directly by Sephora maybe is from Singapore too. I made a complaint from my recent purchase at sephora online store and they didnt seems to bother me and make me more frustrated. The things is they are not customer oriented and my voice does not reach Sephora Malaysia. I will not shop at the sephora online store again.